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Call it Soccer for Mainstream Acceptance
By Fabricio Conte on Mon, 20/12.2010The trouble-ridden sport of soccer in Australia is again at the crossroads. With minimal interest in the failed World Cup bid and a failing national league it is clear that the sports quest for mainstream acceptance is faltering at the final hurdle.
Many people have put forward their ideas ranging from improved community engagement to increased focus by the FFA on the A-League through to putting "football people" in charge at the top levels.
I have a much simpler solution. Market the sport as soccer.
It is a solution that will have many world game purists (or zealots) respond by calling me an illiterate, a member of the ‘Anti-Football League’, and perhaps even a bogan. They will cite reasons such as Johnny Warren saying we should name it as such and Craig Foster saying that it shows respect to the game and indicates we are part of the global community. There is also the matter of not wanting to be told what to do by the other football codes.
There are, however, viable reasons as to why this name reversal should take place. It all comes down to appealing to the public at large in contrast to the world game purists. These purists insist on telling mainstream Australia how to participate in the sport and what to call it. These purists may point out that it is only in countries where soccer is not the most popular football code that it is called such. In retaliation, many ‘Anti-Football League’ members may point out that there are other sports called football in those areas already. However, the renaming of the sport is not about asserting popularity of one sport over the other.
Most Australian soccer fans will tell you that the A-League is of poorer quality than many of the leagues around the world . It is obvious that the popularity of the A-League is not a measure of the sport’s popularity much like the AFL is not a measure of Australian Football's popularity. Many Australian soccer fans do not watch the A-League but are followers of the EPL, Serie A, Bundesliga, or one of many local Australian soccer clubs. The fans of all these leagues are already in love with the sport. They will follow the sport if it is renamed pickleball. However, it is clear that the marketing strategy of the sport within Australia is an obstacle to any substantial future growth within the mainstream Australian population.
A key marketing theory is differentiation from the competitors. The key point of differentiation from competitors in the Australian market is the international nature of soccer. The Socceroos, however, can be separated from the A-League. By marketing the sport as ‘football,’ the A-League is not being distinguished from its much larger and greater supported competitors in Australian Football and Rugby League. It is a strategy that Ben Buckley, as a previous Head of Nike Australian marketing, would have extensive experience with but is probably too afraid to bring up at any executive discussion.
Many purists state that the game should be called ‘football’ to fit in with the rest of the world and ensure we are a part of the global community. However, they need to understand the need to connect with the Australian community first and foremost. In no Australian state is soccer the most popular football code and as such, exclusively calling the sport ‘football’ reeks of arrogance and also has a touch of cultural cringe about it. Additionally, it needlessly antagonises the rest of the sporting population.
There are also many successful examples of the code using ‘soccer’ to market the product. These examples are the American sports league Major League Soccer, English radio station Soccer AM, ESPN SoccerNet, World Soccer magazine and, of course, the media's use of the term ‘soccer’ in the areas of the top four most attended A-League clubs.
The naming of the sport as ‘football’ also forces consumers to compare between the different codes. Soccer is a sport that provides a unique viewing experience, one in complete contrast to the other football codes. The sports marketing needs to reflect this.
Reading this article, you may wonder how such a big name change can be possible. The name change should only occur at the informal level. Continue referring to the sport as football in business names like Football Federation Australia, Sydney FC, all media releases and formal press statements. However, in TV advertisements, news reports, player media appearances, and newspaper headings etc, the sport should be referred to as soccer.
Soccer needs to differentiate itself in a crowded sports market and allow itself to stand out from the crowd. It should not allow a minority of Australians to man handle the governing body into making decisions that favour their own misguided sense of importance.
As Edwin Artzt stated, "Brand value is very much like an onion. It has layers and a core. The core is the user who will stick with you until the very end." In other words, the name change will not lose any of the current sports followers. It is a win-win.
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I think the Rubicon has been
I think the Rubicon has been crossed on this one.
When it comes to the old
When it comes to the old 'soccer vs football' argument I quote Shakespeare:
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
It doesn't matter what is called really. In Italy it is not called football (or futbol or variations thereof) but calcio.
The issue in Australia however is that in some instances naming the game 'soccer' is an insidious way of putting the round ball code in an inferior position. (Only AFL and NRL can aspire to call themselves football, soccer is a lesser game here in Australia which doesn't really belong in the sporting landscape of the countries played in fact by "wogs poofters and sheilas"). I remember when the TV Guide of The Age started naming soccer football (which has now been reversed) one letter complained and said 'No matter what you want to call yourself you will always be 'soccer' in Australia'.
So let's call it soccer by all mean. But lets ensure that this doesn't place the sport on an inferior plane towards other codes.
In reference to your third
In reference to your third last paragraph, that is largely already the case. So what's your point exactly??
Rugby Union and Rugby League call themselves footy, so why can't association football(which is where that cringeworthy name 'soccer' came from) call themselves football? Why can't Australian football also refer to association football as football, when many of us so called 'zealots' are willing to refer to AFL as football also? Ok there are some notable exceptions(like in every code), but I think you'll find that a lot of football fans are willing to refer to AFL as football. But it seems that for the most part it's a one way street!!
This isn't about being arrogant, it's about having a fair go! Every other football code gets to call themselves footy, so why can't we!?
Now I know that Aussie Rules is a shortened version of Australian Rules Football, much in the same way that soccer is a shortened version of association football. But seriously, Aussie Rules is a reasonable abbreviation, where as soccer is an abbreviation that is dumb and cringeworthy. Perhaps we should have called Australian football 'Ausball' for short? Do you think that would be a popular name? No of course it wouldn't! But it's as dumb an abbreviation as soccer, so I wish fans of the other football codes would stop trying to tell us we should choose to have a dumb name! And for anyone that can't recognise the cringe worthiness of a name like soccer, then it is probably a reflection of why you can't appreciate some of the finer details of the world game in the first place!
Football is my number 1
Football is my number 1 sport. The only sport I have ever purchased a season ticket to. The only sport I hvae travelled interstate and internationally for. The only Football code i played. I simply love it.
But i have no problem in calling it Soccer. It is called soccer in many other countries including throughout Europe, without being a cringe and without being ridiculed.
All i ask from mainstream Australia is that Soccer is accepted as a Football code, because like it or not there are 2 other codes who use "Football" extensiveley.
Hi guys, First, thanks for
Hi guys,
First, thanks for reading my article.
I appreciate the feedback.
Second, i feel as those some people are misunderstanding the message that i am trying to portray in the article. I am not saying that soccer should not refer to itself as football at all. I am simply saying that in Australia it would be better to market itself as soccer. It would not infer an inferior position. It is up to the FFA to market the brand of soccer and build the profile.
All the codes are football, but it would help soccer not to create confusion within key markets like Melbourne where there is already a brand that everyone knows as football.
Soccer/football or whatever
Soccer/football or whatever you bloody want to call it, if people want to support the code then they will, and I think the name would have little to do with it.
I know plenty of Rugby and AFL people that follow football and don't care about the name, and there are plenty of football fans like myself that happily follow the other codes, and we're quite happy to call those codes football too.
I think to not support a code because it shares the same name as your own is just pathetic. So why should it be factor in growing the game? If people aren't going to show interest in a game over it's name then they're not going to show interest in the game full stop. So why try and please them?
In the long run I think it is better that football fights for it's fair share of respect, which quite frankly it doesn't get. And don't try and deny it! I look at the news on commercial stations and they FREQUENTLY make mistakes with player names, team names etc. For example Brisbane Roar is top of the table and just the other day Sports Tonight did an entire bulletin calling them Queensland Roar. That's pathetic and unprofessional. Would they dare do it for any other code? NO! Channel Seven are also culprits for regular mistakes that they should be aware of. Sometimes I think they do it just to stir trouble.
In terms of marketing you can try and call it soccer but you should not underestimate all the negative connotations that many people have with the name(from both sides). I don't think it would make much difference.
Why grow the game using soccer when you grow the game using football. We've been using football for a few years now and junior participation continues to grow, and the interest in our national team continues to grow. Yes the A-League is having issues with attendances, but I don't think that referring to it as football is playing a part, it's other issues! If the term football is playing a part in the decline in attendances then how come crowds were higher in the league when the term football was only just beginning to be used?? Clearly it is other issues that are causing it.
I'll tell you how football will start getting more mainstream attention, it starts with greater knowledge/respect from the media! Which has a flow on effect to the general public!
no
no
Football has 'mainstream'
Football has 'mainstream' acceptance. It is the worlds game and it is loved by Australians from the bottom of Tasmania to the tip of Queensland to the furthest western point of WA. That the commercialisation of the national league has a long way to go is a completely seperate point. As has always been the case in Australia, the media will not create culture as much as reflect it. In time the broadcast networks will change (everyone else has figured it out - partizans aside). It is only a matter of time.
Rugby League and Rugby Union
Rugby League and Rugby Union both have Rugby in their name, and they both call it Rugby, and lots of other people refer to each as simply rugby. Do people care? No. The only people that get confused by both being called rugby are the people that would never give a sh*t in the first place, so it makes no difference. So why can't you have Football and Football?
The only country in the world
The only country in the world that calls soccer 'football' is the UK. While the literal translation into languages other than English is football, more often than not the pronunciation or spelling differs. In the English speaking world more people consider the 'NFL' to be football than soccer.
Australia has its own language, this recent attempt by soccer to attempt to impose itself on how we speak is offensive. It harkens back to an era of colonialism where British imperialists would attempt to control the language of the natives whom they had invaded in order to obliterate their culture.
Soccer will never be known as
Soccer will never be known as Football in Australia no matter how much fools like Foster want it to be, Australian Rules will always be Football.
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